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REAL
E S TAT E with CHRIS HINES F R O M U N R E A L E S T AT E
THE HOME THROUGH TIME Houses have changed a lot since the 1940’s. So has the way we live in them. The emphasis is on space and flexibility with kitchen / living areas flowing onto rear gardens or terraces.
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ouses have turned back to front. The focus is no longer on a formal “front parlour” or how the house looks from the street. Increasing density of living has made people more aware of the need for privacy. The result? Living and entertaining areas are now concentrated in the back areas of the house. Guests are even allowed into food preparation areas that would have been taboo in previous eras. One of the reasons for the turnaround is that there are more women in the work force than ever before. Working women don’t want to come home to solitary confinement behind the kitchen sink. Family members share the cooking and guests and chefs make merry while the cooking is in progress. The kitchen has coped by becoming more of a showplace. Technology has made cooking easier and devices such as the extractor fan keep odours from permeating open plan living spaces. House size is the most striking change in the last half century. Families are smaller, yet houses are twice as big as 1940’s houses they’ve gone from 100 to 180 square metres. Kids nowadays wouldn’t dream of sharing a bedroom. There’s more internal space per head of population, yet we expect to move on to something better every seven years or so. Today’s home owners are more mobile, both geographically and socially. While most of our parents lived all their life in one or two places, 110 COFFS COAST
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we view houses as stepping stones to better investment and lifestyle benefits. The motor car, highways, immigration, technology and feminism have all had an impact on housing structures; houses reflect both technological and lifestyle changes. The modern home is an asset which, adroitly managed, can move us up the social ladder. SELLING YOUR OWN HOME Vendors who sell privately think that without agents’ fees they will end up with more money in their hand. Their outsider’s view of the industry tells them that selling a house is easy work. In reality they not only find that there is more to it than they could ever have dreamed of but many end up with a lower selling price into the bargain! For a start, buyers know that the vendor is not paying a fee and expect to negotiate accordingly. Your home is your family’s single greatest asset, requiring professional marketing and expertise. It takes a lot of training and experience before a selling agent is skilled at marketing and negotiating and there are many pitfalls for the uninitiated. Negotiating direct with a purchaser is extremely difficult because of a vendor’s emotional involvement and lack of experience. The net result is often lost opportunities through personality conflicts or poor negotiating. Many vendors take their property off the market thinking they have a buyer only to find that their inexperienced eye had been unable to spot an unqualified or shaky purchaser. Timing
is one of the crucial factors in successful marketing and many may well end up missing out on genuine motivated purchasers who would have paid more. Inexperience combined with familiarity often causes vendors to overprice or underprice their property. While the financial loss of underpricing is obvious, overpricing is a bit more insidious. Overpricing means the wrong market is being targeted and a sale is unlikely to result. By the time the price is varied, the property is already stale and the ultimate selling price may be lower. The risk inherent in allowing anyone who knocks on the door to enter your property should not be underestimated. Professional real estate agents are skilled at qualifying purchasers. The time spent with purchasers in the office prior to inspecting properties becomes, in effect, a pre-inspection interview. Home owners are unable to create this middle step in a way that won’t antagonise buyers. While it’s possible that everything may run smoothly, there are so many different stages of the process where using the experts will ensure a professional, stress-free result and add thousands of dollars to your final price, more than offsetting professional fees paid. Remember, when in doubt, chose a member of the Real Estate Institute of NSW.
